Bubble Meter is a national housing bubble blog dedicated to tracking the continuing decline of the housing bubble throughout the USA. It is a long and slow decline. Housing prices were simply unsustainable. National housing bubble coverage. Please join in the discussion.

As an actual "first time home buyer" I didn't think the video was that unhelpful.And arcticerose22, it seems to me that much of southern France, despite being idyllic, is either very expensive or quite dangerous. Do hold onto your purse in Marseille!

Have fun in Nice. I'm debating an eventual move to Florida, where home prices are half what they are here, and the weather is much nicer. The only downside: not many tech jobs there. Although, I have two co-workers who recently moved to Florida and now telecommute.

That was helpful for me as a first time home shopper/buyer as well. Not sure I'm buying that "renting is %50 cheaper" argument. Usually renting is the cost to buy + whatever profit the owner wants to make.

That means renting, outside the bubble we just had, will usually end up costing you more than renting.

Infinity8Ball said..."That means renting, outside the bubble we just had, will usually end up costing you more than renting."

I think you meant to say "owning" as the last word of that sentence, right?

Ignoring the current bubble, I think that renting is usually cheaper in the short run but owning is cheaper in the long run. I say this because according to John T. Reed, real estate investors usually have negative cash flow when they first buy a property. The benefits of owning seem to come from inflation, which raises rents and home prices over time.

What James said. Keep in mind that in the simplified equation, Rent = Cost + Profit. Rent is NOT a variable dependent on the other two. Landlords CAN'T simply charge whatever they want. They can't charge more than people are willing and able to pay. Rather the price that they are willing to pay for the purchase of a rental propety is dependent upon their estimates of rent (today and into the future) --Jim A

All I know is that the condo I was renting was $1100 a month, but if I bought it in 2006, my mortgage would have been $2900 a month. Hell if I were to buy it now, my mortgage would still be over $1100 a month.